Coquilles St. Jacques a la Provencale

Just to update the cruise. Lynn remembered that she and I had mussels the last night and half did not open. I’ve made mussels a million times and they always open. Kind of made you leery of eating the rest; enough about the bad food on the cruise.
Today was a bad day and Jim is in a vicious mood. We reviewed the pricing for the house and there is no way we can afford it. So I tried to make things better by producing a meal that it ended up I needed help on. I think it made things worse. The main course was scallops. I did not have the right rice and so I made Israeli Couscous. It was perfect with this dish. I did not add anything to it, but wish I had sprayed the pan so the Couscous did not stick so badly. I served asparagus, my usual way. Following is Julia’s scallops. It serves 6 as a first course. She says to double as a main course. My scallop shells are still packed, so I used a ceramic quiche pan and kept the recipe as is for 3 as a main course.
Ingredients:
1/3C minced yellow onion
1T butter
1 ½ T minced green onions
1 clove garlic
Directions:
Cook the onions slowly in butter in a small saucepan for 5 minutes, until tender and t4ranslucent but not browned. Stir in green onion and garlic and cook slowly for 1 minute. Set aside.
Ingredients:
1 ½# washed scallops
Salt and pepper
1 C sifted flour
Directions:
Dry the scallops and cut into slices ¼” think. (I did not cut my scallops). Just before cooking, sprinkle with salt and pepper, roll in flour, and shake off excess flour. (I put the flour in a baggie and shook it and then dumped in a wire colander and shook the excess off. )
Ingredients:
2T butter
1T EVOO
10” skillet with lid
Directions:
Sauté scallops quickly in a very hot butter and oil for 2 minutes to brown them lightly.
Ingredients:
2/3 C dry white wine and 3 T water
½ bay leaf
1/8 t thyme
6 buttered scallop shells ( I used the one quiche pan as mine are packed)
¼ C Swiss cheese
2T butter cut into 6 pieces
Directions:
Pour the wine into the skillet with the scallops. Add the herbs and the cooked onion mixture. Cover the skillet and simmer for 5 minutes. Then uncover, and if necessary boil down the sauce rapidly for a minute until it is lightly thickened. Discard bay leaf. *Spoon the scallops and sauce into the shells. Sprinkle with cheese and dot with butter.
*Set aside or refrigerate until ready to place under broiler
Just before serving, run under a moderately hot broiler for 3-4 minutes to heat through, and to brown the cheese lightly.
This dish was wonderful. However , as my stove and broiler were probably hotter than Julia’s, I cut the times for the scallops in half so as not to overdo them.
Bon Appetite!